The Restoration of the Bourbons – 3 May 1814

After Napoleon was exiled to Elba in April 1814, Louis XVIII returned to Paris and became king.

Louis fled France during the Revolution and, when Louis XVII (his nephew) was guillotined, Louis proclaimed himself to be the ‘King in Exile’.

While in exile, Louis actually wrote to Napoleon to ask him to restore the monarchy. Napoleon replied: ‘You must not expect to return to France. It would mean marching over a hundred thousand corpses.’

Here’s a newspaper article from May 1814 that reports on the restoration of the Bourbons.